The community transport organisation I work for is leasing an electric car.

100% electric, not a hybrid.

There’s an official launch day next month, but today staff had a preview.

I didn’t actually drive it but the Nissan Leaf is very comfortable in the back, very spacious. The dashboard is straight forward. The accessories of radio, media, GPS, seemed more complicated than the actual car controls. The silence does seem odd.

What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday was solemn for ANZAC Day and the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.

This weekend it is a car festival and a week of road rallying ending in Hobart. Last night we joined several thousand enthusiasts to see the hundred plus cars at Macquarie Wharf No 2 which is the international cruise terminal. Last week it was host to HMAS Canberra, yesterday it housed cars ranging from a 1938 Dodge Speedster to current day super cars, McLaren, Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini, Lotus, Jaguar and others.

This morning we set an alarm and got up early to drive to Cygnet to watch the penultimate stage of the Tasmania rally. We were able to watch from the start as the cars accelerated past at set intervals.

We’d never seen so many Porsche at one time before. We chatted to a couple of guys who were maintenance support for one of the teams. They’d travelled from the mainland, obviously knew a lot about the cars, the teams and the rally.

It was good practice, taking photos of fast moving objects. I was accused of only taking photos of the “pretty” cars. Most of the time I didn’t know what the cars were, but I learned a lot today. I’m not sure how much I’ll remember and I still don’t know who won.